1. Introduction
The summer of 2023 marked the culmination of the fifth program of the Early Career Leadership Academy (ECLA), an American Meteorological Society (AMS) program that was born from the need to train women; people of color; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+); and people with disabilities with leadership skills for careers in the Earth system sciences. The history of ECLA spans less than a decade, yet the program is already making an increasingly positive impact across the weather, water, and climate (WWC) enterprise, having trained over 100 participants who are rising to leadership positions within the AMS and across professional sectors (e.g., academia, broadcasting, private industry, and public and government sectors). As of this publication, nearly half of all ECLA graduates have taken a leadership and/or service role1 within the AMS. ECLA has also fostered a community of early career scientists and professionals who support each other as they progress throughout their careers. ECLA has also helped participants understand the needs and challenges faced across professional sectors, all of which are united by common threads in the WWC enterprise in service to society.
The goal of this manuscript is to document the inception of the program, its purpose, its evolution over the years, its impact, and future direction. Volunteers who plan and organize ECLA have learned lessons that we describe herein, to help others build and grow leadership and professional development programs within the geosciences and beyond. We also share our vision for where efforts should be concentrated for the training of early career scientists and professionals who can help us build a more equitable and inclusive future alongside scientific excellence and innovation. The manuscript ends with a call to action, listing actionable strategies that all can take and implement to help early career scientists and professionals be agents of positive change.
2. Identifying the need for ECLA (2016)
In 2016, programs and activities were reassessed as the AMS prepared to enter its second century of promoting science and service for society (Seitter 2017). Meeting WWC challenges necessitates developing and sustaining a diverse, competent workforce with the skills and capabilities to succeed in leadership roles. While efforts have been made to attract and retain women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities in geosciences, both within the AMS and beyond, their overall representation in leadership roles remains low. Often, these individuals do not advance to leadership positions as quickly as they should (e.g., Stephens and Kazarosian 1992; Michaels et al. 2001; Murillo et al. 2008; Behl et al. 2017). For women, it has been noted that there is a “leaky pipeline” issue in that women leave the field in early career or midcareer stages (e.g., Pell 1996; Wickware 1997; Clark Blickenstaff 2005; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and others 2018; Bos et al. 2017; Ranganathan et al. 2021). For people of color, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities, it has been noted that they often lack access to role models and mentors, leading them to feel isolated, resulting in missed opportunities for their advancement as well as for the WWC enterprise (e.g., Liu et al. 2019; Morris 2021; Morales et al. 2022, 2023). Hostile climates and toxic work cultures discourage diverse individuals from seeking careers in atmospheric sciences and related fields (e.g., St. John et al. 2016; Mattheis et al. 2022).
Simultaneously, an ad hoc task force of the AMS Council was created2 to review diversity and inclusion across the AMS. The AMS Cabinet for Culture and Inclusion (CIC) resulted from this effort (Seitter 2020). Additionally, the task force recommended mentoring and support for early career professionals from diverse backgrounds, with special attention to historically underrepresented groups in the WWC enterprise. Around the same time, the Weather Company, an International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) Business, sought to invest in the WWC enterprise. Mary Glackin, a vice president at IBM, worked with Keith Seiter, the former AMS executive director, and Bill Hooke, the former associate executive director, to draft a proposal loosely modeled on the AMS Summer Policy Colloquium (Goldner et al. 2013), with the specific goal of creating a community of future leaders from diverse backgrounds. A major feature of the program was envisioned to include the targeted training and peer mentoring of early career individuals to create a community of graduates. The concept moved forward under the leadership of Mona Behl,3 Maureen McCann,4 and Donna Charlevoix,5 as they added input from various professional sectors and AMS communities.
3. Initial designing of ECLA (2017–18)
ECLA became a joint initiative of the AMS Education and Engagement Commission and the Commission on Professional Affairs, helping link commissions with common goals (Fig. 1). The overarching goal of ECLA was established and still stands today: “to improve the overall retention rates of women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities in atmospheric sciences and related fields by cultivating leadership, providing mentorship, and fostering a strong community of supportive peers and collaborators.” To address the unique challenges faced by women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities, the AMS leadership recruited a planning committee that was representative of the people whom ECLA aimed to serve. Planning committee membership was staggered to recruit at least two ECLA alumni, refine the program design with their help, and provide them with an opportunity to implement ECLA. The original planning committee of ECLA included five early career professionals, two of whom were from the AMS Board on Representation, Accessibility, Inclusion, and Diversity, two from the AMS Board on Early Career Professionals, and an evaluation expert. The diverse personal identities and professional sectoral representation encapsulated by the planning committee members allowed them to design a program that could adequately address the professional development needs of people with lived and learned experiences similar to theirs. While training a class containing diverse professional sectors can be challenging (e.g., the needs and wants of all individuals may not align), the focus on leadership within the WWC enterprise does mitigate some of these challenges related to sector-specific interests.
Partial organizational chart showing where ECLA fits within the AMS structure.
Citation: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 105, 10; 10.1175/BAMS-D-23-0171.1
The ECLA planning committee drew inspiration from two highly successful experiential learning programs: the AMS Summer Policy Colloquium (SPC; Hooke 2002) and the Institute of Georgia Environment Leaders (IGEL) program. Since their inception over a decade ago, AMS SPC and IGEL have helped hundreds gain professional skills and develop tight-knit networks. AMS SPC brings a select group of students and professionals to Washington, D.C., for a 10-day immersion in science policy, whereas IGEL builds and sustains a diverse network of environmentally educated leaders in Georgia. Community-building and peer mentoring models used in ECLA were also modeled after the Mentoring Physical Oceanography Women to Increase Retention (MPOWIR; Lozier and Clem 2015; Legg et al. 2020) and the Earth Science Women Network (ESWN; Adams et al. 2016), both of which are community-based programs that are focused on providing mentoring and support to women and nonbinary genders in geosciences. ECLA was designed to complement these and other existing efforts (e.g., Early Career Geoscience Faculty workshop; Beane et al. 2020) with a specific focus on training future leaders across WWC professional sectors, creating a pipeline to leadership positions within the AMS, and building a strong peer network made up of diverse identities to increase the sense of belonging and retention.
Conventional leadership frameworks entail hierarchical and authoritative leadership structures (i.e., top-down leadership). On the other hand, “adaptive leadership” frameworks entail cooperation, where a leader facilitates the team’s collective ideas and experiences to solve complex challenges and is arguably better suited to navigate rapidly evolving environments while supporting organizational diversity, inclusion, and retention (Heifetz et al. 2009). However, effective adaptive leadership requires a strong foundation of trust, open communication, and workplace relationships; it cannot be imposed on an organization. As such, the planning committee used adaptive leadership principles to design a program that develops participants’ ability to build trust, share vulnerabilities, respect cultural differences, use emotional intelligence, create meaningful collaborations, anticipate uncertainties, and prepare for change. The skills required to build these subjective experiences are rarely addressed in academic preparation, yet are fundamental to leading effective, diverse teams. ECLA was designed to foster meaningful and sustained interactions among participants through webinars, peer mentoring, leadership dilemmas, panel discussions, and creating leadership through improvisation (i.e., “improv” theater) and team building.
The planning committee used several recruitment strategies to support reaching women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities. The announcement was disseminated broadly by various boards and committees of the AMS, word-of-mouth via trusted channels, and through promotion in BAMS. In addition to hosting panel discussions and informational sessions at the AMS Early Career Professional Conference, the planning committee hosted networking events at the AMS annual meeting.
The ECLA application form and evaluation criteria were designed with the needs and experiences of women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities in mind. For example, applicants were asked to reflect on specific leadership skills critical to them and their identities along with the impact of power and/or privilege on professional journeys. The selection process was based on their responses to the application questions, which were created in an attempt not to prefer any professional sector. A four-point scale rubric, where each point represented a different degree of proficiency, was used to evaluate candidate opinions on their accomplishments and challenges in the WWC enterprise. A rubric containing four levels is generally preferred (to one of three or five points) because it avoids a neutral option when evaluating each answer. Responses to application questions have included the ability to work in interdisciplinary groups, establishing open and trusted work environments, cultivating emotional intelligence, systems thinking, and building and managing diversity. These responses also inform the programmatic design of ECLA, including the themes of webinars and panel discussions, and recruitment of speakers (e.g., Table 1).
Examples of session topics for ECLA programs from 2018 through 2023.
An advisory board was developed to provide oversight and guidance to the ECLA planning committee. In addition to Maureen McCann and Donna Charlevoix (AMS commissioners), the board included Mary Glackin (AMS Council), Bill Hooke (AMS SPC), and Rob Williams (IGEL). Advisory board members ensured the effectiveness of the planning committee, provided advice to the ECLA program, and promoted ECLA broadly. The advisory board was also responsible for the selection of ECLA participants. During participant selection, care was taken to choose individuals across professions, interests, perspectives, cultures, and experiences to support a rich, robust environment. Application reviewers completed bias training to mitigate biases to the largest extent possible. After class selection, the professional sectors of participants were reviewed to ensure the representation of a range of professions. Participants were responsible for the costs of the program, and scholarships were provided through IBM on an as-needed basis. Costs include lodging, travel, and a registration fee, which contribute to the costs of catered meals, on-site technology, and conference room(s).
The inaugural class of ECLA (Table A1 in the appendix) met in Washington, D.C., after the 2018 AMS Washington Forum. While a formal analysis of the applicant pool has not been conducted, it appears that applications are more heavily skewed toward the academic sector. However, we note that the academic and public sectors are combined in Table 2 because many careers in the public sector also work closely with academia, particularly positions in federally funded research centers or cooperative institutes, which are often associated with universities. Some ECLA participants may have also been graduate students (and thus, academia) but may have gone on to the private sector or broadcasting after graduation.
ECLA class professional composition, including employment in a professional sector (academia and public, broadcast, and private sectors) and completed terminal degree from 2018 through 2023. Academia and public sectors were combined due to challenges with disentangling research positions at public laboratories and academic institutions. The reported statistics were compiled during participation in ECLA and do not reflect career sector changes or additional degree attainment since participation in ECLA.
Evaluation has been an integral part of ECLA design and implementation. During the initial 2 years (2017–18), the planning committee included an external evaluator who designed formative and summative evaluations that included open- and close-ended questions. This format allowed participants to provide quantitative and qualitative data on the effectiveness of the ECLA experience. The questionnaires were built on and administered through Qualtrics, a web-based tool dedicated to questionnaire development, administration, and data collection. Formative and summative evaluations occurred after each ECLA webinar and during the in-person experience. Participation in the evaluation was not mandatory. After the first ECLA meeting, the external evaluator also conducted virtual interviews with a few participants of the first class. Interviews were transcribed and then analyzed using thematic analysis. Subjects were given aliases in place of personal identifiers in the presentation of findings to maintain confidentiality. The evaluation expert and the planning committee members were all early career professionals who donated their time to serve on the committee and design and execute ECLA.
4. Evolution of ECLA (2019)
The 2018 participants indicated a need for a smaller class to enable participants to form meaningful connections and allow more time for them to interact during the in-person meeting. Class size was capped at a maximum of 25 moving forward; 19 participants were selected for the 2019 class, as compared with 34 in the 2018 class (Table 2). The in-person meeting was moved from April to July and extended from 1.5 to 2.5 days to slow the program timeline and allow more networking among participants.
Strategic and logistical considerations are balanced when choosing the location to host the ECLA in-person program. Participants generally prefer a lower-cost city that is accessible via a major airport. Priority is also given to centrally located cities for equity considerations. Hosting the ECLA in-person programs in different cities also enables the creation of unique programs given the ability to tap into the lived and learned experiences of local WWC communities. We note that while a dynamic program that changes year-to-year implicitly supports learning and continual growth, it also adds to the workload of ECLA volunteers.
It was recognized that each class of ECLA would be diverse and unique in its own way and that the program, including both the leadership webinars and the in-person meeting, should be planned according to the needs of the specific class. For 2019, the planning committee used general themes from the participants’ applications to identify the topics for both webinars and in-person sessions, which included formal leadership strength assessments (e.g., Tomkovick and Swanson 2014), conflict resolution in the workplace, emotional intelligence, and science communication. Speakers were recruited from inside and outside the WWC enterprise for diversity of perspectives. During the in-person meeting, participants took a tour of The Weather Channel in Atlanta, Georgia, and heard from company leadership and on-camera meteorologists. The tour expanded professional networking, provided an “in-the-field” educational opportunity, and allowed time for relationship building within the ECLA class.
The ECLA advisory board also determined that the program needed to implement several changes for long-term success. The first was to have two co-chairs annually for the planning committee. This reduced overburdening one chair with a high workload and ensured redundancy and continuity. Similar to other AMS governance bodies, a “terms of reference” was put together and submitted to the AMS Council to formalize all aspects of the program. A Google Drive was also set up to house all planning documents, meeting minutes, and other pertinent information to ensure institutional knowledge and record keeping. Due to funding constraints, the committee could not recruit an external evaluator to work with ECLA beyond the initial 2 years. The ECLA planning committee still uses questionnaires to obtain participant feedback and improve the overall program.
5. Navigating crisis together (2020–21)
The 2020 ECLA program started as initially planned, but as the COVID-19 global pandemic unfolded, it became apparent that significant changes to the planned schedule were necessary. Class members were anonymously surveyed to gather feedback on holding an in-person meeting. The consensus was to host the in-person meeting virtually and extend the program timeline into 2021 (Fig. 2).
The evolution of the ECLA timeline from planning to implementing the program (2018–23).
Citation: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 105, 10; 10.1175/BAMS-D-23-0171.1
The initial three leadership webinars focused on leadership strength assessments of all class members, emotional intelligence, and climate change communication. The additional two webinars featured past ECLA class members discussing how they have used ECLA in their careers and allowed for networking between current and past class members. The class had originally been broken up into four peer mentoring groups. For 3 months leading up to the spring of 2021, the four groups were paired into two larger groups to allow for a more direct interaction between class members throughout the extended timeline of the program. This allowed class members to know more individuals and make lasting connections. The 2.5-day virtual meeting was held in March 2021, with the virtual nature allowing for a broader and more diverse pool of speakers. The participants heard from leaders within the WWC enterprise on their leadership journeys across professional sectors. The class also participated in virtual improvisation, which helped them develop inclusive and equitable leadership practices through collaborative communication and form cohesive relationships with the class. Ample time was allotted for networking throughout the virtual meeting with informal networking sessions during the evenings, including games and casual conversations hosted on virtual platforms.
6. Expansion of DEIJA training for leadership (2022)
Given the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and accessibility (DEIJA) for employee recruitment and retention (e.g., Rodprayoon and Maj 2021; Cohen 2022), and inherent alignment with the overarching goal of ECLA to improve retention rates of women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities, leadership skills that incorporated DEIJA practices were identified by the planning committee as critical for the successful development of early career scientists and professionals in their pursuit of leadership. These skills would also have positive and long-term effects in their respective workplaces and organizations. Such leadership skills not only extend beyond an ability to address inequities and show vulnerability but also align with adaptive leadership principles, requiring an understanding of the intersection of our identities, unconscious biases, microaggressions, and the impacts of gender bias and racism in the workplace, along with skills to intervene when witnessing problematic situations.
To facilitate the incorporation of this expanded training into ECLA, support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) was sought and obtained through an Early concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER). Cam Brinkworth and Kristen Aponte from the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), collaborated with the ECLA planning committee to adapt their UCAR/NCAR Equity and Inclusion (UNEION) training program for the needs of early career leaders. The ECLA UNEION program covered topics related to power and privilege, gender, race, and ethnicity and included bystander intervention training.
The in-person portion of the program was held in Kansas City, Missouri (Fig. 3), given the central location in the continental United States (U.S.) and the reduced costs associated with the location, both of which can be hurdles for the in-person participation of early career professionals. The in-person meeting also provided the opportunity to hear from local leaders within the WWC enterprise in Kansas City. When searching for local speakers, an emphasis was placed on bringing in people of diverse backgrounds who could speak to the needs and interests of the ECLA class.
Locations of the in-person component of the ECLA program. The respective year of the ECLA program completion is indicated in the legend (2018–23). The ECLA 2020–21 program is not indicated because it was held fully virtual.
Citation: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 105, 10; 10.1175/BAMS-D-23-0171.1
7. Setting course for the future (2023)
The fifth ECLA program began in March 2023 with the orientation webinar and culminated with the in-person component in Phoenix, Arizona, on 21–23 June. The fifth installment of the program encompassed principles established by the four previous ECLA programs while allowing flexibility to tailor the program to fit class and AMS needs. Some examples of the continued program efforts include peer mentoring, sessions on DEIJA, and team-building activities, such as improvisation. These concepts connect across all five classes, establishing foundational principles in leadership and providing consistency to build a sense of community between classes.
The 2023 program was also the first time the in-person ECLA program was held in conjunction with another AMS meeting, the 50th broadcaster’s conference. The decision to collocate introduced several advantages, the main one being on-site access and help from AMS staff to handle logistical arrangements, such as technology, catering, and room spaces. On-site help from AMS staff also allowed the planning committee to focus on the quality of the content for the meeting, and collocation with the broadcast conference allowed the sharing of invited speakers. However, broadcast sector representation may have been more limited (Table 2) due to collocation with the AMS broadcast conference potentially related to work (extended time off) constraints, which does suggest that collocation with another AMS conference may pose challenges in the participation from the respective sector(s). Similar to the 2022 ECLA program in Kansas City, the planning committee leveraged local institutions for guest speakers. Since this class had many participants from the academia and research sectors, the committee invited educators and researchers based at the University of Arizona.
To ensure program continuity and transparency, a program Charter was drafted for ECLA based on existing recommended practices from the AMS. The previous recommended number of 8–10 planning committee members was continued. It was noted that most of the planning committee have previously participated in the ECLA program, which provides ECLA alumni with an opportunity to practice learned leadership skills and supports their advancement to leadership roles. Planning committee member selection is through self-nomination and recommendations from existing planning committee members. Recommendations may also originate from AMS commissioners and representatives from the Board for Early Career Professionals and the Board on Representation, Accessibility, Inclusion, and Diversity. The 2023 ECLA planning committee also modified their leadership structure from two co-chairs to three co-chairs, named “Outgoing Chair,” “Chair,” and “Incoming Chair,” to further support leadership transitions and organization.
8. The impact of ECLA (2016–23)
There are now 115 alumni of ECLA since completing the fifth training program in the summer of 2023 (Tables A1–A5). Approximately 70% of ECLA alumni identified as women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and/or people with disabilities during the completion of the program. Approximately 77% of ECLA graduates were employed in academia and/or the public sector (e.g., government and nonprofit) during the ECLA program (Table 2). ECLA participants also worked in the private (16%) and broadcast (7%) sectors of the WWC enterprise at the time of their enrollment in the program (Table 2). More than 50% of participants had earned their doctoral degree as their terminal degree at the time of their participation in ECLA (Table 2). This growing network of early career professionals in the WWC enterprise is poised to drive change within their home organizations and, more broadly, across the scientific community.
Although it is difficult to quantify the impacts of the ECLA program fully, several metrics measure aspects of the program. Here, we give some insight into the service of ECLA graduates that we are aware of, which presents a very likely underestimation of impact. Their service has included positions on various boards and committees (e.g., Board on Representation, Accessibility, Inclusion, and Diversity, Board of Operational Government Meteorologists, Board on Higher Education, and the Board on Enterprise Strategic Topics) that are a part of all of the AMS Commissions and generally served as multiyear terms. Service has also included positions on various award committees, conference organization committees, and editorship positions (e.g., editor and associate editor) within AMS journals, many of which are served on 1-yr terms. Service as tracked here excludes volunteering as peer reviewers for AMS journals, chairing, co-chairing, or convening AMS meeting sessions, volunteering for subcommittees of AMS boards or committees, and serving on the ECLA planning committee, which can be more difficult to track but critically important for AMS and the scientific community and should therefore be systematically tracked in the future. Despite the difficulty of quantifying impact, at least 51 ECLA graduates, that we are aware of, have gone on to serve on one or more entities within the AMS over the past 5 years (through 2023). ECLA graduates have filled approximately 185 positions across the AMS, which is somewhat inflated by 1-yr term positions. Approximately 116 out of 185 AMS leadership positions held by ECLA graduates were women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and/or people with disabilities. Twenty-eight out of 51 ECLA graduates did not have their first AMS leadership role until after graduating from the program, and 21 out of 28 are women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and/or people with disabilities. All classes have had members serve AMS in some capacity.
Of particular note is the substantial number of ECLA graduates who have gone on to serve on the Board of Early Career Professionals, likely due to the high affinity for a group for which they are a living embodiment. For the 2024 ECLA planning committee, the entire committee and leadership are made up of previous ECLA graduates. Additionally, three ECLA graduates have gone on to serve as AMS councilor. Alumni of the program have brought their unique expertise and perspectives, at least some of which have been shaped through their participation in ECLA, to ensure the AMS continues its service to the scientific community and pushes to continually improve. Additionally, the impact of ECLA graduates on the WWC enterprise beyond the AMS is also likely profound but beyond the scope of this paper to quantify.
Perhaps most importantly, ECLA has fostered a community of early career scientists and professionals who support each other as they progress in their careers. Research shows that professional networks lead to broader and deeper knowledge, better career advancement and enhancement opportunities, improved capacity to innovate, and access to mentors and sponsors (De Janasz et al. 2003; Kulkarni 2012; Rincón-Gallardo and Fullan 2016).
9. The way forward and a future outlook (2024 and onward)
The continued leadership training of diverse groups to improve representation in leadership positions should remain a focus of the ECLA program for years to come, which can be positive feedback to finding solutions for complex problems faced in the WWC enterprise. In addition to enabling women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities with leadership skills, expanding to reach other groups (e.g., indigenous communities and service veterans) will also help with building leadership in the WWC enterprise, that is, representative of the diversity of the United States. ECLA’s focus on leadership cultivation can also be expanded to address other workplace challenges, such as improving workplace cultures in the geosciences, given the need to improve retention of diverse groups. To expand its reach, ECLA should also consider making some training sessions and materials open to all AMS members. These ideas for future directions for ECLA can form the basis for future funding of the program. Sustained funding is one of the challenges in keeping such a program active since available funding is beyond our control, subject to economic recessions and shifting political and societal priorities (Table 3). Without financial support, many early career professionals would not be able to participate in such a developmental experience. For example, one-third of ECLA 2022 respondents reported that the NSF funding support was essential for their participation (M. Olson 2023, unpublished manuscript). For ECLA 2024, funding was secured through AMS headquarters, specifically the DEI Initiatives Fund, which presents an opportunity for sustained support in the near term.
Summary of ECLA evolution (2016–23). Some ECLA updates resulted from program evaluations. A summary of needed improvements is also provided.
As valuable as ECLA is to those who can participate, it is not a panacea for providing more support for early career scientists from diverse backgrounds. The path to career endurance for eventual leadership positions within the WWC enterprise needs collective support so that early career scientists can overcome barriers and hurdles along their journeys. Advocating for change can lead to workplace retaliation for not perpetuating the status quo or not doing things “as they have always been done,” and as such, established scientists and professionals in mid-to-late career stages must do more than state that they support DEIJA practices or their early career colleagues. Action must be demanded from all to transform the WWC enterprise from one that lacks representation and diversity, particularly in leadership positions, to one with diverse representation across all stages. We call upon mid-to-late career colleagues to support, mentor, and advocate for early career scientists and professionals in the WWC enterprise, particularly women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities. We have come up with a list of strategies that will help ensure that early career scientists and professionals continue to be the agents of change that we envision them to be. The list of actionable strategies includes:
- 1)Demystify policies, processes, and pathways to leadership. Pathways to leadership can vary and look very different across professional sectors, and not all early career scientists and professionals may have access to institutional knowledge (e.g., Mahat and Tatebe 2019).
- 2)Improve recruitment and retention efforts by considering the “face” of your organization (i.e., who is shown on your website), writing inclusive job advertisements, creating transparent hiring rubrics, establishing diversity policies, promoting pay equity, and educating supervisors and employees on the importance of DEIJA (Whittaker et al. 2015).
- 3)Provide mentorship and support. Mentorship teams, as opposed to individual mentors, could help individuals better address and overcome the multifaceted challenges encountered in the workplace (e.g., Ivey and Dupré 2022).
- 4)Improve workplace climates. Growth opportunities, support of work–life balance, honest and clear communication, and authentic leadership practices are ways in which workplace climates can be improved, leading to better employment satisfaction, job performance, and retention (e.g., Alzghoul et al. 2018).
- 5)Create leadership opportunities for early career scientists and professionals. For this paper, we chose to order authorship based on the year of the last completed degree, with the most recent first, a simple example of one way to elevate and provide leadership opportunities for early career professionals.
- 6)Volunteer time and share effort for the professional development of early career scientists and professionals. The success of ECLA is largely due to AMS volunteers, who are primarily in the early career stage. Service efforts not only provide leadership experience for volunteers but can also take time from other workplace responsibilities that more traditionally support career advancement.
- 7)Improve award nomination and selection processes for all. Advocate for and implement improved award nomination and selection processes, such as requiring smaller nomination packages that may require less time for volunteers to organize, providing examples of past winning nominations, and opting for double-blind reviews of proposals (e.g., Chen et al. 2022).
- 8)Nominate early career scientists for professional awards and invited panels and talks. Studies have shown the positive feedback that recognition and awards can have on careers in the early stages (e.g., Mughal et al. 2021; Ren et al. 2022).
The year-to-year adaptability of the ECLA program has allowed it to evolve and meet the specific needs of early career scientists and professionals. ECLA can highlight disruptive technologies that will impact careers in the WWC enterprise (e.g., artificial intelligence and cloud computing) and aim to inform and prepare early career scientists and professionals for such impacts. Climate change will continue to pose new societal challenges within and beyond the WWC enterprise. Training early career scientists and professionals with the needed skills to work effectively across disciplines should be a priority of future programs to facilitate collaboration and convergence on these complex, emerging challenges (e.g., Bloom 2011; Peek et al. 2020; Molina et al. 2023; Shah et al. 2023).
Over the past few years, ECLA alumni have met at the AMS annual meetings, a tradition that the program aims to continue for many more years. These gatherings present an opportunity to evaluate whether ECLA is meeting its goals to improve retention, leadership, and career progression of diverse groups, and thus should be capitalized on. A point that has become increasingly clear by writing this manuscript is that investments in formally assessing whether ECLA is meeting its goals are critically important; as the adage states, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Questions about early career leadership could be included in future AMS-wide membership surveys led by the AMS Board on Representation, Accessibility, Inclusion, and Diversity to assess the impact of ECLA. There is much more work to be done, by ECLA and other such efforts, to improve the retention of diverse groups and create a WWC enterprise that is representative of the humanity it serves. Efforts like ECLA can help establish and cultivate a deeper understanding, empathy, and camaraderie across professional sectors with the realization that despite our different job responsibilities and personal identities, we all experience similar work–life situations as early career professionals in the WWC enterprise.
Leadership and/or service roles are defined as membership on an AMS Board, AMS Committee, or AMS journal editorship board. Service in the form of article or abstract reviews, meeting organization, and session convening, among other such activities of the AMS, were not considered due to challenges in tracking.
Under the leadership of then AMS President Roger Wakimoto.
Who then served as the chair of the Board on Women and Minorities (now the Board on Representation, Accessibility, Inclusion, and Diversity).
Who then served as the commissioner on professional affairs.
Who then served as the commissioner for Education and Human Resources (now the Education and Engagement Commission).
Acknowledgments.
ECLA is partially funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Early concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) Award 2039488, led by Stephanie Armstrong, Kathryn Putsavage, and Melissa Burt. Volunteers have helped grow and evolve the AMS ECLA program to where it is today; we gratefully acknowledge the time and service of Alexandra Anderson-Frey, Leyon Greene, Emma Hagen, Elyse Hagner, Chris Maloney, Molly Merrifield, Alex Morrison, Milton Newberry, Jared Rennie, Ashton Robinson, David Schvartzman, Brian Smoliak, Chris Vagasky, and Marcus Williams. We also thank Cam Brinkworth and Kristen Aponte for adapting the UNEION program for ECLA 2022–23.
Data availability statement.
No datasets were generated or analyzed in this manuscript.
APPENDIX Names of Ecla Participants (2018–23)
Tables A1–A5 show the names of AMS ECLA participants over the period of 2018–23: ECLA 2018 (Table A1), ECLA 2019 (Table A2), ECLA 2020–21 (Table A3), ECLA 2022 (Table A4), and ECLA 2023 (Table A5).
ECLA participants of the 2018 class.
ECLA participants of the 2019 class.
ECLA participants of the 2020–21 class.
ECLA participants of the 2022 class.
ECLA participants of the 2023 class.
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